Last night I had the privilege of leading the towns Holocaust memorial day service. Jews, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs (including the Mayor), Hindus stood together, along with people of no faith, to remember the awful event of the Nazi Holocaust of 1933-45; the genocides of recent years in Camodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur; and also to stand together to remember the victims of violence of recent weeks in the Holy Land.
No Holocaust denying here in Luton.( Britain's Catholic bishops denounce anti-Semitism ) But also no denial of the terrible events of the last few weeks in Gaza. A Muslim, Jew and a Christian (myself) stood to call the gathering to stand in silence.
It took a lot of work to make it happen. But talking together works! Funny that! We made it clear that we gathered together, condemning all acts of evil, both past and present, that fracture and destroy our world and that betray our common humanity. We were not gathering to point the finger at each other or others; indeed we would probably not have been all together if that were the aim. There are many forums where that can take place. Instead, remembering these events with great sadness, we gathered in the hope that together we could learn from the example of overcoming hatred that is given to us by so many represented in our town. We may not agree on our understanding of the past or present, but we do have a common dream, of a future free from injustice and suffering, and we met to commit to work towards that.
The event was a service of commemoration and as such the language was that of hope, of faith, and expression of our common humanity. From our common humanity comes a condemnation of all acts of violence. We were not meeting as a law court or a governmental forum, and our words were not those of judgement or blame. We trust that justice and truth will prevail, as it has done in regard to past evils. Our hope was to look beyond that justice to our life together in shared peace and celebration of our diversity in this colourful town which all have the privilege of calling home.
(After all that the local paper led with a front page picture (for which they had held the printing) and article that singularly failed to mention the Muslims being there (despite being in the picture).)
We need to continue to talk. We look forward to it.
Statement and silence for all suffering in The Holy Land
- read together by a Jew, a Muslim and a Christian
We have been reflecting on the great suffering of millions of women and men in the past century. The sufferings experienced during the Holocaust and the other genocides we have remembered are not just limited to the past. We are all aware of the places around our world where people suffer in war and as a result of man’s inhumanity to man today.
In a few moments We will invite you to stand for a minute to a minute of silent reflection or prayer for the victims of the recent tragic and terrible episode in the Holy Land, in Gaza and Israel. This episode has affected people of all faiths –Muslims, Jews and Christians.
We are privileged that Luton’s Holocaust Memorial Day brings together people from all faiths and none. We gather, condemning all acts of evil, both past and present, that fracture and destroy our world and that betray our common humanity. This event is a service of commemoration and as such the language we use is that of hope, of faith, and expression of our common humanity. From that common humanity comes a condemnation of all acts of violence.
We must continue to show that people of different faiths can come together and value and respect each other. Human life is a God given gift, the sanctity of which is the core of all the religions, we need to do everything possible to protect, preserve and celebrate it -- to help and save the vulnerable non-combatants – babies, children, women and the frail – who have been subject to days of unimaginable fear and terror.
We conclude with the words of a Quaker prayer for this troubled region:
for Palestinian or Israeli
But pray rather for ourselves
That we might not divide them in our prayers.
But keep them together in our hearts.
Whether we now pray or keep silence, let us now hold that place for all in our hearts.
Let us stand and observe a minute of silent reflection or prayer.
[one minute of silence]
A challenge to stand against hatred
- read by myself (a Christian) and followed by a Muslim (to be posted soon)
Thank you. We are encouraged by this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day theme to “Stand up to Hatred” in all its forms. Holocausts don’t just come out of nowhere. They begin with hatred, expressed through intolerance, discrimination, exclusion, slandering, violence, dehumanising and demonising “the other”.
In this town where the world has come together and people from many nations, ethnicities and faiths live as neighbours, we have the opportunity to give practical expression to our standing up against hatred. We have the opportunity to humanise one another , to get to know each other, to hear one another’s stories, to learn about each other’s faiths or philosophy of life, to become friends. We have the opportunity to oppose hatred, to challenge it, in ourselves, our friends, at school, work and in leisure, and in society. And to each draw upon the resources of our faith or philosophy of life to do so.
[my good friend A went on to express what his Muslim faith has to say to Stand up against Hatred. I will post what he said soon.]
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